Green Party demands ban on Israeli military as terror group and Balfour apology
The Green Party has voted for the Israeli military to be banned as a terrorist organisation and for Britain to apologise for the Balfour Declaration.
Members voted for the motion at the Green Party's annual conference in Bournemouth on Sunday, making it party policy.
The motion called for the Israeli military to be proscribed, which would make membership of the Israeli military or even glorifying it a terrorist offence under British counterterror legislation.
Party leader Zack Polanski backed the motion, saying in the conference hall that to do so was a "moral imperative".
The motion also said that Britain "should formally apologise to the people of Palestine for the Balfour Declaration", which in 1917 expressed British support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
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Members also called for "a UN peacekeeping force in the West Bank & Gaza to ensure the safety of Palestinian residents".
Other Green demands include to "support and resource the international case of genocide against Israel at the International Criminal Court" and to "implement a full arms embargo on Israel".
The Greens would also "end the training of Israeli soldiers by British forces, and end the spy plane flights over Gaza from the British military base in Cyprus".
Earlier in the conference, Polanski accused the Labour government in his conference speech last Friday of being "an active participant in the murdering of the Palestinians".
"We must stop selling arms to Israel," he said. "We must stop sharing intelligence. We will do everything we can to stop the genocide."
The Green leader also attacked the government's ban on direct action group Palestine Action as a terror organisation.
On Saturday, Gaza continued to be high on the agenda - with Polanski and other key figures in the party joining a march from the conference centre to the beach, to demand the government sanction Israel.
Twenty thousand new members have joined the Green Party since Polanski was elected leader last month with over 80 percent of the party's vote. It was announced on Saturday that the total membership has now surpassed the Lib Dems'.
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